Gantz: Friendship
by MikiharaTsukiko
Summary: My first story ever on Fanfiction! Not much of a love-story, but can be if you want to. Nishi JoichirouXOC. Review, please? *Puppy eyes*


**Hey everyone! So I'ma newbie and here's my first story ever in Fanfiction! I'm not new to fanfic's though, since I've been writting them for like, two years, at Quizilla, but I still have a lot to improve on, so yeah...** **and also, I apologize for any bad grammars and storylines.  
**

**Anyway, hope you guys will enjoy the story! Not much of a love story, but can be if you want to. Nishi JoichirouXOC:**

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Sighing, I stared at the sketch in my hands. The artwork which reminds me of someone.

There's this boy I could never, ever forget.

He's always the quiet, anti-social boy in my class. You know, the ones who give you cold stares and reply with silence when you talk to him, making most people hate to get close to him.

Though, there's nothing special with our meeting.

Oh, I've not introduced myself yet. My name's Arai Yukio and I am the monitor of my class. How did I get the job? …well, let's just say no one volunteered or suggested anyone and the teacher randomly picked the last person in the class list- me (Y, Yukio). I'm just a normal middle-school student, going through a normal life with normal family and friends.

And who's 'him' I've been mentioning since earlier, you may ask: Nishi Joichirou. I've been in the same class with him ever since I entered this middle-school, but never talked even once to him. It all started when my teacher summoned me to the staff room just to ask me to return the exercise books she had just marked for the class…

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"God, my English sucks…" I muttered to myself, looking at the bunch of red pen marks in my exercise book while carrying the books as I walked back to class. Someone crashed onto me and sent the books scurrying throughout the floor. I heard the guy said sorry and walked away. Can't he at least help me to pick up the books?

Sighing, I picked up the books myself. One of the books caught my eye then. All the questions were answered correctly and perfectly. Hell, there were loads of words which I have never seen before. This guy must be genius…thinking that, I flipped to the front cover where the name was written. "Nishi…Jo…ichirou?" I read. It then hit me that we've never talked before. "He's always seen alone too…perhaps I should try talking to him…"

Finally reaching class, I glanced at Nishi who was sitting alone.

"Nishi-kun, here's your book," I said, placing his book on his desk.

He didn't even try to answer, not to mention giving me a glance. I stood there, looking at him for some time before saying "your English is very good. Where did you learn them from?"

Another silent reply. My sweat dropped until I saw what he was doodling in a book- a woman with a serene smile.

"Sugoi…" muttered, scooting closer to the drawing. I noticed his hand stopped drawing in that instant and I look up to see him looking at me.

He shifted his gaze back to the drawing. "What do you want?"

Hallelujah. Finally he spoke up! "Who is she?"

He stopped again and glared at me. I stared into him curiously. "…she's…my mother…" he answered almost in a whisper, his voice sounded somewhat hesitant.

"She's beautiful," I muttered, still watching attentively as his hand worked out her smooth silk hair.

"…"

The door opened and my homeroom teacher stepped in.

"Oh. Talk to you later!" I waved. With that, I went back to my seat.

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"Thank you class," the teacher greeted as the bell for the last period rang. As everyone gathered their belongings and headed home, I peek over my shoulders to see Nishi was still in his seat, drawing again. He had a kind of smirk on his face this time though.

"Nishi-kun, you're not going home yet?" I asked as I walked to his table. "What are you drawing?"

While he still had his eyes fixed on the page which was smeared all over with red ink, I took another pen from my pocket and started doodling at the side of the page.

"H-Hey, what are you doing?"

"There…done."

His eyebrow twitched when he saw that what I drew was smashed tomatoes and ketchup bottles.

"What… the hell?"

"Aren't you drawing tomatoes and ketchup? Or should I add some French fries…" my stomach gave out a growl and I blushed immediately when he stared at me, eyes wide. I was lost of words for a moment and could only stare back with embarrassment.

He coughed into his fist and started laughing.

"C-C'mon! I didn't get to eat because teacher asked to see me at staff room for class' activities you know!"

"You're weird," he chuckled, "by the way I'm not drawing smashed tomatoes or ketchup."

"Then?"

"Blood."

I stared at him for a while and he smirked up at me.

"If you're drawing blood you should draw them with broken arms or legs, not color the pages with only red ink, shouldn't you?" I said.

He raised his eyebrow and gave me a 'you-are-supposed-to-run-away-in-fear' look. "…what the heck is wrong with you?"

"Uh well…I'm just telling what I think is right…did I sound weird?"

"Aren't you disgusted of something like this?" he looked away. "Or even at me…"

"Why should I? It's not like you're gonna eat me or something," I laughed.

He narrowed his eyes and closed his books before shoving them into his bag and walked out of the classroom.

"Hey, wait for me will you?" I called and saw a paper (folded) on his desk. "You left your stuff!"

"Take it," he said without looking at me.

"For me…?" I opened it and saw…a nicely drawn sketch of me. Since when did he draw this? But… "NISHI!"

He stopped in his tracks.

"Thanks! It's beautiful!"

Without any reply, he resumed walking and disappeared from sight.

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"Hey, you heard?"

"Yes! That's so horrible!"

"I wonder if he'll even kill humans!"

"Stop scaring me! He's in our class! His eyes are horrible too…"

I overheard the group of girls who were muttering with each other again. "What's the matter?"

"Hey Arai-san, you've talked with Nishi the other day right? Have you heard about him?"

"Heard? About what?"

"About him blowing up a cat! You should keep your distance from him…who knows what he might do!" the girl said and her friends nodded approvingly.

Blowing up a cat? Wait! "Where did you girls heard that from?"

"The rumors have been going around! It's impossible to not know…"

Okay…rumors. Those stuffs again. "Well it's just rumors, gossips. They can't be possibly true. And blowing up a cat? I don't think Nishi will do that," I said, recalling how he laughed before.

"But there were witnesses! They saw Nishi blew the cat up with their own eyes!"

"In that case, one, are they really 100% sure that the person is Nishi? They never got close with him before, they might mistake the person for him. Two, if they saw, why didn't they stop him? Three, how does a normal human being has the ability to blow up a cat? And even if the person has gun, Nishi is just a middle-school student. Where could he possibly get a gun from?"

The girls fell silent before the sound of the door opened echoed throughout the classroom, followed by silence and murmurs. Nishi entered and headed straight to his place while everyone pointed at him and whispered to each other. He glared at them and they immediately went silent and walked away. I sighed at the sight. Stupid gossips.

"Don't mind them. Just some false gossips going around," I said, walking up to him.

"I don't give a shit," he muttered, resting his chin on the palm.

"In that case, good," I smiled and pulled out a pack of cookies from my pocket and placed it on his table before proceeding back to my place. He slowly picked it up and stared after me. Peeking over my shoulders, I mouthed "as thanks for the art, and nice to be friends with you". He seemed surprised, but I widened my smile and turned back around.

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After handing the class' fee to my homeroom teacher in staff room, I headed back to class to see several students looking out to the window. My eyes then landed on the empty space in the middle of the class where a desk and chair were supposed to stand.

That's Nishi's place!

"Where's the desk which was supposed to be here?" I asked the class, causing some students to look at me in silence. I walked to the window and saw it- someone threw it from here, third floor. "Who did that should better bring them back."

No answer.

"If no one's admitting I'm gonna report this to teacher. Someone surely saw who did all these," I added, although I knew the teacher won't care much, but again no answer. I sighed and proceeded to go downstairs to retrieve the desk when I ran into Nishi.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"Hey Nishi, well…" I trailed off, not wanting him to feel bad that his desk and chair were thrown out of the window. As I struggled to find the words, he eyed on me.

"Don't you dare bring the desk up."

So he knew. "But-"

"I'm warning you. I'm going to make the people who did that carry them back, so don't even touch them," he said coolly and walked past me into the class.

"Well…" I muttered to myself, unsure of what to do.

"Arai-san? It's time for class," a sound said behind me in all of the sudden and I turned to look at my next lesson's teacher.

"Yes sir," I quickly followed him into the class and saw Tanaka, the person sitting next to Nishi, was the one standing instead. I cocked my eyebrows in confusion, but the lesson is going to start so I hurried to my seat.

"Hey, what are you playing at?" my teacher asked Tanaka.

"Nishi…took my desk…"

"What? What's all this?" he turned to look at Nishi. "Nishi, on your foot now."

Nishi glared the other way. "Just start the damn lesson already."

The teacher frowned. "Why you…this desk is Tanaka's desk, isn't it?"

"How should I know? Honestly…what an incompetent teacher," Nishi sighed. I gaped, slightly unable to believe my ears on what he had just said.

The teacher seemed really furious now, but he walked away. "Nishi, I'll see you in my staff room soon…" but Nishi fired back with "Uh-huh, sure you will"

When the lesson ended, I ran after him. "Hey, we should really get the desk back by ourselves" I told him.

"Never. I'm going to make them pay if they don't do as I say."

"This is going to cause a lot of trouble! Let's just drop it for this once alright?"

"I say don't you even dare touch them, you hear me?" he's now glaring at me.

I sighed. "Fine. But if there're more troubles coming soon I'm gonna take them. I don't want you to get into trouble."

He just stared at me for some time without saying anything before turning around and walked out of the class.

While Nishi was not around, Tanaka hurried and moved his desk back with help from his friends. I sighed at the sight. Why would everyone behave like this? Is there even any good to throw desk out of the window? Even if yes they should throw themselves', not other's- it's so mean. And it's not like Nishi stepped onto their tail or something, he didn't even do anything towards them.

It didn't take Nishi long to get back to class though, and he found his desk missing again. He can't take Tanaka's desk this time too, because Tanaka had gotten wiser to stay in his seat.

"The punks who threw my desk out, go get it now," Nishi said loudly. "Murata, Yamaoka! Get your asses moving!"

"You should really get out of this school now," a guy interjected.

"Hmm?"

"Someone saw you killed the cat you know. It's just a matter of time before you start killing humans, right?"

The rest of the class mumbled in agreement.

"Anyone who wants Nishi to stop coming to school~ raise your hands~" another said lazily while having his hands in the air. The next thing I know, everyone in the class had their hands raised up, except a huge girl in glasses who stare down at her desk.

My jaws dropped. What the hell is this class doing? I stood up, "Everyone, stop this now-"

"Hahaha…" I was cut off by Nishi's laugh. "Hahahahahahaha!" I stared at him, lost of words.

"Ah! So creepy!" some students said. "So, so nasty…" "He's just so scary!"

His laughs died down eventually. "…ignorant fools."

"Huh? What did you say?" the guys stood up one by one and started surrounding him. My eyes widened.

"GET HIM!" the guys shouted as they forcefully grabbed Nishi and hoisted him up.

"Throw him out!" the crowd cheered, "Open the window!" "What are you waiting for?" "Throw him out!"

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GUYS DOING? LET HIM DOWN!" I shouted, but no one was listening. I had no choice but to jump at one of the boys, but someone pulled me back.

"Arai, if you're not on our side you better not get involved in this!" the group of girls barked at me.

"What do you guys think you're doing? He's going to get killed for real! You're out of your mind- just STOP IT!" as I struggled to release myself from the girls' grips, Nishi was thrown out of the window. I watched in shock as he disappeared from sight and a loud 'thud' could be heard after.

The class went silent immediately with shock.

"H-He…" one of them started, "he was just…fooling around…and happened to…fall down…"

"Y-Yes, he just happened to…fall down by himself…"

My hands and leg trembled. The girls' grip weakened, causing me to fall to my knees. Someone had just been murdered, in front of my eyes…but…

I can't save him…I can't save Nishi…

In all of the sudden, a girl broke the silence with her piercing scream. "HE…HE STOOD BACK UP!"

In a neck breaking speed I looked up to see everyone was getting panicked.

"No way! He just stood back up! What the hell is he?"

"I'm going back up there right now!" I heard Nishi's voice shouting from outside, "Not a single one of you better leave that room!"

I'm not dreaming! He's still alive! But…how? And most importantly, what is he going to do?

"C'mon, run! He's getting back up!" I watched as the class shouted and started running. But when they opened the door, Nishi was already standing there with a bag in his hand. The students screamed in horror and ran back in.

"Wait! I'll face him!" a guy volunteered and everyone stopped. "I know Karate, I'll be fine!" he walked up to Nishi, towering him with a smirk. "He must have done something…like put a cushion behind him, maybe a Shounen Jump or something…"

Nishi snickered. "You sure are stupid."

The guy punched him across his face, causing the crowds to cheer. "Kill him! Kill him! Kill! Kill! Kill!"

I looked at how ugly the crowds were. They looked so smug when they were bullying, looking so pathetic running away when afraid, and now they're ganging up on a middle-schooler…?

How worse could this society get?

Nishi managed to stop the guy's punch eventually and the class went silent again. The guy groaned, cracking his hand before his head exploded, causing everyone to scream and flee again. I just sat there in shock, my eyes slowly clouded with tears while watching Nishi exploding one by one's head as the rest ran to where I was sitting in the corner of the classroom. The classroom became one of those horror scenes in movies where dead bodies laid and blood smeared everywhere. The sight sent chills up my spine and I felt the knot in my stomach tightened.

Soon, all guys were killed and only we girls were left. Nishi approached us slowly.

"Save us! Please, save us!" the girls cried pathetically.

"We didn't do anything…leave us alone!" one of the girls stood out and screamed at Nishi, "YOU SICK FREAK! MURDERER!"

There was not even an emotion on Nishi's face when he blew the girl's head up, followed by one after another. The ones left now were only me and the huge girl in glasses.

I sat there; unable to move even a finger when he walked up to me with his gaze fixed on me. My heart beat increased. Is he going to kill me too?

But instead, his lips tightened into a thin line and said "Now are you afraid of me?"

I couldn't answer- I couldn't find my voice. All I could do was just stare straight at him, tears clouding my vision. How I hoped all the red inks I'm seeing now are smashed tomatoes and ketchup sauce- but they're blood; real blood. And real dead bodies, in front of me…

Nishi sighed while looking out through the window. "The police showed up…faster than I expected."

"W-wha…what do you plan on…doing now…?" the girl asked.

He answered with "Why the hell are you still here?" before his phone rang. "How the heck did they even have my number?" he answered the call in calm, mocking tone. "Yeah? Yeah, they're all dead. Yeah, for real. You're going to bust in? For a measly old middle schooler?" he cut off the line. "Fuck. Why did things have to turn out like this?"

Could it have been better if I took his desk since right from the start?

In all of the sudden, the windows crashed in loudly, snapping me back to my senses. I crouched low with a gasp as pieces of glass flew everywhere. A bright light shone in next- probably from a helicopter- and a team of SWAT forces broke in.

"Shit…shit!" Nishi cursed as he ran towards the door. However, the SWAT's were faster and they shot him down in an instant. All I could do was just staring in astonishment.

"Nishi…" I whispered, regaining my voice, "Nishi! NISHI!" I ran after him, but one of SWAT members held me back. "NISHI!"

"The target has been eliminated. Affirmative. Two hostages are alive…" the members reported.

"NISHI! STAND UP PLEASE, I BEG OF YOU, STAND UP! LET HIM GO! HE'S NOT AT FAULT, PLEASE!" I cried, struggling to break free while reaching out for his figure. "DON'T KILL HIM! HE'S STILL ALIVE, I KNOW HE IS! NISHI!"

"Let's go," two SWAT members brought me out. I tried to get past them but they were stronger with two guys against a girl.

All I could do was only cry in despair as I was brought further and further away from him.

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That was the very last time I saw him. I brought the sketch close to my face and closed my eyes, trying to feel his presence.

When will I see him again? I don't know…

But I'll always believe that he's alive. I mean, he did survive the drop from third floor, didn't he? Though whatever happened that day didn't make any sense…

I know we'll meet again someday, soon.

And by that time I'll make sure we'll eat the cookies I made together again.

I'll always wait for your return, my friend…Nishi Joichirou.

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**Thanks a bunch for reading! R&R please, if you don't mind? Love ya ;)**


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